OPEC+ meeting: Oman oil minister Rumhi sceptical about oil outlook

His Excellency Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhi, Oman’s Minister of Oil and Gas, today said that though no deeper oil output cuts were discussed during the OPEC+ meeting, however Nigeria and Iraq had promised to “fully comply” with the deal by October.

Adding that the “outlook is not very good for 2020”, the Omani oil minister said that overall compliance on OPEC+ output cuts was 136% and that there was a “kind of feeling” that cooperation between OPEC and its allies should continue, according to a Reuters report. He did, however, confirm that the balance of supply and demand for oil was stable.

In an earlier interview, H.E Rumhi had said that oil prices were unlikely to reach US$80 per barrel in the near future.

The minister was speaking to Russian news agency Tass and said that oil producers needed to be more rational and focus on the current scenario where the price is at US$60 per barrel. “Every producer needs $80 per barrel compared to US$60, but is it reasonable? Probably not, not in the current circumstances. We need to move with the current economic environment. I would enjoy seeing oil grow from US$60 to US$80, but it’s highly unlikely,” H.E Rumhi was quoted as saying to Tass.

Oman, according to experts, needs the prices to be at US$85 per barrel having projected a deficit of OMR 2.8bn based on an average price of US$58 per barrel.

Meanwhile, oil prices fell with brent crude futures LCOc1 falling to 61 cents to $60.20 a barrel, heading for the third session of losses. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 were down 37 cents at $55.38.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency (ITA) also said that surging U.S. output would make balancing the market “daunting” in 2020. It kept its forecasts for growth of oil demand for 2019 and 2020 at 1.1mn bpd and 1.3mn bpd, respectively.

Earlier on Wedneday, OPEC revised its own estimates for global oil demand by 80,000 barrels per day to 1.02 million barrels daily for this year in its September report. The report said, “World oil demand in 2019 is expected to grow by 1.02 mb/d, which is 0.08 mb/d lower than last month’s projection.”

Deepa Rajan wanted to be a lawyer, so she became a journalist. As a sub-editor her favourite thing to do was rewrite copies. Now, a 15-plus-years career later, she spends time rewriting her own copies. Deepa loves the Oxford comma and binge-watching shows when not serving as a “Tell Me Why” encyclopaedia to her 5-year-old. Write to Deepa at: [email protected]

Deepa Rajan wanted to be a lawyer, so she became a journalist. As a sub-editor her favourite thing to do was rewrite copies. Now, a 15-plus-years career later, she spends time rewriting her own copies. Deepa loves the Oxford comma and binge-watching shows when not serving as a “Tell Me Why” encyclopaedia to her 5-year-old. Write to Deepa at: [email protected]

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